a blog about perfume

Cumin in Perfume

Few notes in fragrance are as polarizing as cumin. Some people associate cumin with sweat or food, and even the tiniest hint of it will cause them to double-bag a perfume sample and take it to the garbage can in the backyard. Other people, including me, like the carnal edge cumin adds to a fragrance.

For people who want to experiment with cumin-laced fragrances, I've put together this cheat sheet of a few perfumes and their ratings on the cumin-o-meter. I hope you'll chime in with your favorite fragrances, too.

Cumin-o-meter rating 1: Serge Lutens Chêne. Have you ever leaned your head toward a four-log fire in a fireplace that draws well and breathed deeply? Riding the heat is a touch of cumin. Chêne mimics the smell of an oak fire, but without the smoke. The pinch of cumin is there even if many people don't even smell it.

Cumin-o-meter rating 3: Vero Profumo Rubj Eau de Parfum. Rubj Eau de Parfum — not the Parfum so much — dirties its radiant orange blossom with a hint of cumin. The result is a gorgeously delicate fragrance with a raunchy kick, like a cherub telling dirty jokes.

Cumin-o-meter rating 4: Penhaligon's Amaranthine. Amaranthine is ravishingly pretty in the sense that smelling it leads to thinking some kind of ravishing is going on among its fruit trees, tropical flowers, and milk baths. Unlike many cumin-inflected fragrances, Amaranthine's dirtiness fades out after a number of hours leaving the scent of sweet, woody, cream on the skin.

Cumin-o-meter rating 5: Amouage Jubilation 25. This stuff should come with a warning label: For "special" company only. People may disagree, but to me Jubilation 25's collision of cumin with hothouse flowers and lemony-wood creates a fragrance that is as close to sex in a bottle as you can get, especially if the fooling around involves Taittinger and a Bentley.

Cumin-o-meter rating 7: Rochas Femme. Take Jubilation 25, cheapen it a tad, crush in some peaches and a little more cumin, and you have Femme. Jubilation 25's maid is wearing Femme on her nights off and gets luckier in a week than her mistress does all month.

Cumin-o-meter rating 10: Alexander McQueen Kingdom. Call out the sirens! Kingdom is cumin ahoy. If you are put off by cumin, don't even let a vial of this sweet, rosy, spicy goodness in your house. It's too cuminy for me to wear, but I like having a little around to smell from time to time.

Which fragrances with cumin have I forgotten? Where would they rate on the cumin-o-meter?

I love Eau d’Hermes, too, and wear it pretty often. I know it’s got a fair dose of cumin because that’s what I read everywhere, but I hardly smell any. Thinking about it, I hardly ever detect cumin in scents. Is it possible to be anosmic to cumin in fragrances while being able to smell the actual spice, I wonder?

I smell and taste cumin the spice quite clearly, but often the way it translates in perfumery to me, it does NOT smell quite like the spice at all. It does in Arabie, but in something like L’Artisan Al-Oudh, I get a strong sweaty smell, but not cumin the spice.

Now you have me thinking I need to compare some cumin with a sweaty armpit. I think the house across the street is getting some plumbing work done. Maybe I should wait a few hours and bring over a few grains of cumin?

That’s an interesting distinction. I find the “cumin-sweat” note in Al-Oudh to be a bit unpleasant. But I love the cumin note in Jub 25. And what other people describe as cumin in Amaranthine, I don’t experience as cumin or sweat. Just a decaying, but sexy floral note that also brings to mind a touch of body odor. Not unpleasant.

Dolly, I don’t have much experience with it either – the only fragrance I own with cumin is Femme. To me it smells womanly, sensual yet vulnerable, but I only wear it when I don’t expect to be going ANYWHERE.
My mother picked up the bottle this summer while looking through my collection, sniffed, raised an eyebrow at me and snickered “and just where do you spray this one?”
Nuff said.

Le Labo’s Rose 31! I love it, but get hate reactions from my supervisor, who has something against cumin, she doesn’t react that way to other scents I wear, fortunately (e.g. even Montale’s Black Oud and similars)

Also, are you referring more to new Femme rather than vintage? I’ll admit, I handle cumin well, but my vintage EdC idsn’t really a cumin-fest to my nose. I love it, and the similarity to Jub 25 is amazing.

I’ll admit, I was surprised when I sent a sample of my beloved Chêne to a swapper and she said it was all cumin-curry to her. I don’t detect a trace of it. That reminds me though, one must add at least two more Serges: Arabie & El Attarine. I love both.

Oh yes, Serge Noire! Definitely some cumin in there. As for Femme, I’m thinking of the new Femme, which to me packs a wallop of cumin, although in a good way, of course. I’m surprised your friend found so much cumin in Chene. She must have a really cumin-sensitive nose. To me it’s pretty subtle.

Cumin in Arabie?? **gasp** I don’t smell it….but you know I’m heading straight for the cabinet for sniffing. hmmm…don’t really get it in Amaranthighs either.
In some fragrances my nose interprets cumin as sweaty BO, in others it seems more like what’s in the spice cabinet ; more of a pungent foody type smell (like in Jub25).

I only get the faintest whiff of cumin in Amaranthighs, that only lasts for a few minutes. There is such a rush of sensual aromas in Amaranthine at the opening, that the cumin is just part of the whole before it begins to melt into that super yummy milk pudding territory.

If I remember correctly, Lutens’ El Attarine had a good dose of cumin. I don’t get it in Arabie, though. And, I didn’t get Angela’s impression of Jubiliation 25 at all! To me it was a beatiful chypre for a lady – Deneuve or Grace Kelly or something. Must try again.

Have you used this concept often? The meter thingy? I think this is a fantastic way to explore a note – and really helpful for people like myself (identification challenged!). I almost want to get samples of these scents to test it out, except for the fact the I know cumin and it doesn’t work for me in scents at all. I get sweat, curry and tagines. Two of which are amazing foods (no, not the sweat), and the third, competely off putting. Which reminds me, does Annick’s Au Sud have cumin in it?

I’m not sure we’ve use the “meter” concept before, but I’m glad you like it, as unscientific as it is. Cumin in fragrance definitely isn’t for everyone, but give Chene a try anyway if you get the chance. You never know….

I will give La Chene a try. I think I may give the others a try at sample level just for the “note” learning experience as it relates to scent. I still need to build my assocuiations, pleasant or not so much. Just because I sniff, doesn’t mean I have to wear for hours.

I don’t think AG Eau du Sud has cumin but I think you may be smelling the grapefruit. A lot of people get sweat (or even more objectionable notes) from grapefruit – Robin mentioned it in her review here that it was as bit sweaty.

Sweaty canteloupe! That is hilarious. Not necessarily a bad thing, I think skanky perfumes have made me appreciate body odours of various kinds more. Got a sample of Jubilation 25 the other day, better wait for a day off to wear that one I think.

Déclaration is the only scent (so far) I have turned down because the cumin didn’t sit well on my skin. Kingdom is a happy spicey hotch-potch on me and I love SL Santal Blanc with it’s Indian spice accord opening.

I actually like cumin in my perfumes. The first one I bought and still love is Frapin’s Caravelle Epicee which would rate quite high, I’d say 5 or even 7.
And I think something’s wrong with Kingdom on me, I didn’t detect any cumin, it was just strange.
Also, another cumin-y fragrance, 1876 by Histoires de Parfum, which probably rates a 3?

I wonder if your sample of Kingdom is a little off? I’ve got to get out my Caravelle Epicee sample and see if I have that Histoires de Parfum sample (I don’t think I do). Thanks for adding this fragrances to the cumin list!

I also find a lot of cumin—in a good way, mostly—in Amouage Epic Woman and in Le Labo’s Rose 31. It’s interesting that they’ve also put this scent (Rose 31) in a laundry soap—I wonder how that reads on clean sheets or clothes?

Janice – I was going to comment below that Rose 31 is one of the only cumin fragrances that I actually really like and enjoy wearing. It has more of a fresh aroma (like in freshly cooked food), and it just pairs so wonderfully with that rich rose they use. My husband really likes this one too. Good one!

Ah, cumin. The great divider. I do love the warm, sensual edge a dose of cumin can lend a fragrance, and it shows up in a surprising number of classics once you start looking for it.

Femme…ehh. I want to love it, I get a kick out of smelling it, but it borders on unwearable for me. There’s cumin, and then there’s CUMIN. Femme’s cumin is rendered in neon. It does smell rather drier, more elegant, and less sweaty/musty in winter as opposed to summer. (Yes, I’ve made the mistake of wearing Femme in warm weather. Once.) I may give it another go once it cools down over here.

Are we talking about Femme EdT or EdP? I have the EdT and get only the faintest cumin note that is very fleeting. Being a “maximalist” I have taken cumin powder and oil and let sit to dab on top to take it up a notch, I like it but it doesn’t last. I wonder why no one visits any more . . . . .

Angela, sorry to be adding this so late, but if possible, can you tell me where to find Femme in EdP. Searched feverishly on the web and all the North American sites seem only to have the EdT. Love Femme but wish it had a bit higher intensity and lasting power, therefore the search for EdP. Huge plug for Jubilation, sweet but not cloying, intense but not annoying, my next Amouage aquisition, as soon as I refinance the house. . . . .!!!

Angelasays:

27 October 2010 at 10:40 am

It looks like I misled you! I just went to examine my bottle of Femme (I had to use a magnifying glass, even, since the bottom label had been stamped over with a serial number) and it looks like it’s also the EdT version. I’m sorry! It’s so rich I thought for sure it was the EdP.

I saw George Clinton (Funkadelic, Parliament) at the airport once and walked past him. He smelled like cumin, straight up, and it was lovely. I was skeered to talk to him but have always wondered if it was a fragrance or hair product or he just ate a lot of it. He probably wondered why I was wandering near him so often!

I will have to put on some Kingdom later (going to Sephora now so need to be scent-free) to see if I get the cumin hit. I must not mind it, because the things on your cumin-o-meter list that I have smelled, I have liked, own, or plan to own. Plus I like and/or own some of the other suggestions!

I wonder what other controversial notes we could meter-ize? Civet? Lavender? Hmmm….

I was thinking that might have been what it was, too. That reminds me of when I was a teenager and my friend I met some rock star. (Must have made quite an impression if I can’t remember who it was.) After hugging him our coats both smelled like him for weeks. We refused to wash them, and I remember my friend Kim shrieking at us: “It’s BO! You guys are intentionally saving someone’s BO? Wash it! That’s disgusting!” But we loved him, and we thought he smelled wonderful. Serious, though– no idea who it was.

Just spritzed a bit of my Kingdom – I can see now that I just really like cumin in perfume! It is sexy, but I don’t get sweat or ass or panties or anything. Maybe this makes up for whatever it is in Jicky and Feminite du Bois that becomes swamp water.

It is nice to know we have macho noses in one area when another one just plain doesn’t work! Feminite des Bois does seem to have some cumin going on, though. But I know exactly what you mean about Jicky.

Unfortunately, where cumin is concerned I feel myself to be the double bagging type of person. Jubilation 25 is a glorious chypre on me once the cumin fades, but that takes two hours or so. Cumin is a very nauseating BO related scent to me — I’ll blame too many people using the spice in cooking & then crowding onto busy DC Metros. I also have very, very sensitive smell which is both a blessing and a curse.

I may give Jubilation 25 another go when the time is right and depending on how it works or rather doesn’t work, I’ll likely be offering up my sample to a good cumin-friendly home.

I get a very strong cumin/BO note in Timbuktu, and I think Daisy does, too, if memory serves. But this is one of those anosmia/hyperosmia things. LT praises Timbuktu for “bracing, euphoric freshess,” and Joe and Haunani also report that. I catch a whiff of a lovely forest freshness sometimes, but to me the cumin/BO note predominates to the extent that I’m shy to wear it in public.

I wonder what that note is – could it be the smoky note of cypriol that LT raves about? It shows up in a lot of Duchaufour scents to varying degrees. Whatever it is, it is clear to me that it smells completely different to different people.

I know Perfume:The Guide doesn’t note the cumin I smell in a few different scents, for instance, Jub 25. I was never sure if the authors just didn’t smell it, or if it just didn’t matter, or if they had somehow transcended marking cumin as a “notable” aspect of a scent.

Nozknoz- I get a magnificent warm shimmering green – almost pure vetiver – and just whiffs of incense from Timbuktu. It is one of my favorite L’AP fragrances and I love wearing it in winter when I need a good dose of sunshine.

I know that green fresh scent is there, but for me it’s almost like TS said when she commented on another LT review and said something like, “I can’t see any of that because of the 8-story woody amber in the way – not fair!” I’m just hyperosmic to something in Timbuktu. I still like it, though.

BlackCatsays:

25 October 2010 at 3:58 pm

I usually love cumin for its spice and hint of sweaty skank. I love and own Femme and Kingdom, and they’re both quite wearable on me.

Heeley Cedre Blanc, however, was unbearable on me. Definitely the unwashed subway rider smell. So I’d give that one the 10.

I am extremely cumin tolerant and my skin just sort of softens it. My favorite Amouage is J25 and I don’t get any troublesome effects from it at all.
I was wearing MFK Absolue Pour le Soir the other day which knocks some people over, but it was wonderful on me. Have you tried it? I was wondering how you would rate it on the cumin meter.

I love cumin in perfume! To me, it adds a human-ish element that blends beautifully with my skin (I don’t think I smell like a sweaty/skanky guy, either). Buuutt, I think my ethnic background may pre-dispose my skin chemistry to work with it

Angela – I love cumin in large doses in food. I keep one of those jumbo restaurant size cumin containers in my spice cabinet for when I am making rubs, sauces and soups. The more cumin (and cilantro) the better! But for some reason it doesn’t work on my skin or for my nose most of the time. I did mention above that I love the Le Labo Rose 31, which is my fav fragrance with cumin. At first I was afraid to try it, but once I did – yum! It makes me want to eat my skin, lol. Rose 31 smells to me like I am wearing a wonderful rich rose fragrance, and across the room, someone’s just started cooking some really excellent Mexican food. It just works – a lot of balance between the strong cumin and the rich rose . The others – esp. the Jubilations and Femme – not so much. Maybe it’s b/c I have incense issues, etc, that those fragrances seem wildly unbalanced to me – like I am avoiding them as soon as I put them on. Femme esp. gets a little too much “panty” for me.

One of my favorite cumin recipes is from the Casa Moro cookbook (food mostly from Moorish Spain, Morocco, and Turkey) and is prawns with wheatberries, yogurt, cumin, garlic, and cilantro. Fabulous and smells like heaven.

It’s really easy. Just marinate the shelled prawns in the yogurt, cumin, garlic, and cilantro while you cook the wheatberries (which takes half an hour or so.) Drain the wheatberries and squeeze in a little lemon, then add the shrimp and yogurt marinade to the wheatberries and heat slowly until the shrimp is cooked.

Unfortunately for me, if a fragrance has cumin in it, it overpowers everything else. I’ve said this before in other cumin-related posts, but I don’t necessarily hate cumin, it ruins the other notes in whatever fragrance it’s in.

Agree on Fleurs D’Oranger–it was interesting to me that Vero chose to amp up the cumin in her Orange Blossom scent as well. Since orange blossoms do have a dose of natural indoles on the tree, it makes sense. In the SL, it transforms the scent from a straightforward floral to something ummmmm, sexy (on the right day) and totally unbearable on the wrong one. I had enough good days that I bought a bottle, which I cherish, but approach with caution!

I had some troubles when I sampled the SL Fleurs d’Orange too – it smelled like someone dumped some frozen concentrated orange juice in the spice cabinet and left it there for a few weeks. Not a good combo.

The Rubj EdP is glorious, and I see a bottle in my future–although it will have to wait until early next year when my finances are ready for it. But now I’m thinking I need to try Fleur d’Oranger again, too!

Great topic! I like the “-omometer” concept. Very useful in discussing fragrances.

Count me among the cumin fans. I like it as an ingredient in spicy-woody fragrances, and I enjoy the interplay of it with florals, as in Rose 31 and Amaranthine (love both of ’em!). Femme appealed to me the one time I tried it; haven’t tested Jubilation 25. I never have “gotten” the sweaty armpit connection, though there is something sexy about its smell. Hmmm…

I have another fragrance to add to the list! The controversial Frederic Malle Une Fleur de Cassie is pretty cumin-y. Perhaps a 6-8 on the scale? It’s an intoxicating and special fragrance, IMO.

I have trouble with most perfumes that include noticeable cumin, except for this one : Gucci Eau de Parfum I (the one from 2002). It is fabulously done and even though I can smell the cumin, it is beautifully blended and it doesn’t bother me.

I am glad someone mentioned this intriguing scent. I wear Gucci 2002 only at home due to worry over that suggestive cumin note. To me it is a blatant 10 on the meter but I have nothing to compare it to, since I do not know the other scents referred to here (yet).

Since cumin is not commonly used in Western European cuisine, I have always wondered how people who never eat anything but that kind of food knew what cumin smelled like. Surely not everyone is fond of exotic dishes.

I was exposed to cumin from day one: I remember a certain kind of brown bread liberally sprinkled with cumin seeds that my mother used to buy from a Jewish grocer once a week as a treat (it was rather expensive). I love that spice – in food and in perfume. Like in the case of Rustic Dove and dee, fragrances containing it meld with my skin and just produce a warm aura.

I have never understood the quasi-hysterical reaction cumin provokes in certain people.

In the U.S., probably most people are used to cumin in chili. But that’s the only thing I can think of–outside of those powdered taco mixes, maybe–where the average person on the street would taste it.

Exactly! It’s not part of the traditional Western cuisine. At least in the UK, I’m pretty sure the majority of people (unless they have an ethnic background) wouldn’t recognize cumin if it slapped them in the face.

That bread sounds so delicious – wish I could get my hands on some! I cook with cumin a lot – I keep both whole seed and ground in the spice cabinet. I may have to break out the bread machine and improvise a cumin bread recipe!

Cumin is used in a certain cheese in Holland. Cumincheese or Komijnenkaas ( in Dutch). I love it, the cheese I mean. I don’t get the sweaty connotation at all. If a perfume smells of cumin it simply reminds me of a type of cheese that I like. The fragrances I instantly thought of were: ( in no particular order), Déclaration-Cartier, Diorella extrait ( vintage) and Vétyver- Parfums de Nicolaï.

I love cumin. I’ll look for excuses to use it in anything I cook. I even use it in Italian food, which my Italian friends tell me is just plain wrong. But cumin as a fragrance on me… it’s just plain wrong. I’ll be blunt, people: It smells like ass. And I’m not talking about donkeys. (I’d prefer to smell like a donkey.) Armpit would be a step up. I can tolerate smelling like some pretty strange things (donkeys, for example), but smelling like a butt just does not appeal to me. Don’t get me wrong, though: I like cumin on other people. It just doesn’t work on me. I guess I’m the only lucky one who gets to smell like someone’s sweaty gym shorts.

Kitty, you are too much! In my mind I used the phrase: skunk panties. When I feel brave enough to ask my tolerant hubby about cumin frags he just laughs at me. I’ll say: it’s supposed to smell funky sexy. And then he just shakes his head. No, it just smells like cumin.

I’m not sure anyone would have the nerve to tell me that I smelled like a stinky behind. I almost want to take that on as my mission: start wearing cumin scents and ask everyone I meet what it is they think I smell like. I’ve never had the nerve to wear any our of the house, though. I guess I can do vintage Femme, my one exception to the rule.

Hi Angela, I always dig your reviews<3
I'm still learning to appreciate cumin in perfume but I do adore Feminite du Bois by Shiseido. I spray it all over my blankets and just bask in it's warmth at bedtime.
If I spray myself I start wanting to be a bit naughty!
I love when perfume does that. ha!

I too love the “-omometer” concept. Very useful! I am still struggling to identify lots of individual notes (newbie that I am) but the Le Labo Rose just screams cumin at me in a slightly crazed, unwashed seller -of -roses -wrapped -in -plastic way. And,oh, how it lasted…even through a shower. Urgh. I love cumin in food but now a bit leery of cumin frags after that one…

Cumin! Always loved it in my spanish rice- and LOVE it in my perfume But I didn’t as a newb ‘mista…initially I found it it a bit rude but it quickly slithered into my heart and onto my body! I have never noticed it in Chene- I will have to see if I can pick it out. Femmmmmmme. yum. And J25. How about Diolrella? I think it is an 11 on the ‘ometer.

Cumin–I like it when it’s traveling incognito in a perfume, but when it’s waving a flag over its head and shouting, I find I have an urgent appointment somewhere else.
I don’t think it smells like BO, though–here is my BO story:
I was in a junk store in Maryland years ago. The man who was running it was fragrant. Beyond fragrant. I suppose some people would say he hadn’t bathed in weeks.
I stayed there for half an hour longer than I needed to because he smelled so wonderfully spicy and alluring. If I could have bottled that, I think people would have paid Amouage attar prices.

A late comment, probably lost to obscurity, but I have a coworker with the strangest BO. If he gets too close, it’s almost intolerably sour and rank. But at a certain distance, it smells almost floral, almost dead-on for MKK. I prefer the SL to the natural but sometimes I look around for the amazing smell. Then he steps too close and I’m gasping for air.

To me SL MKK smells like clean musks plus a big cumin note, and in this context the cumin smells just like sweat. Like, my boyfriend’s shirt at the end of the day smells like he was wearing MKK. I find it funny and oddly kind of pleasant but it seems weird to pay for what I can smell on my boyfriend’s dirty laundry any time.

So timely, cumin has become one of my favorite notes in a perfume. I think I’ve talked about this perfume before, but F. Kurkdjian’s Absolue Pour Le Soir is cuminy as all get out, and so is L’Air du Desert Marocain, I believe. At least they have that similarity to them, to my nose. LOVE IT!

Agree about the cumin in Absolue pour le soir – Ines of All I Am – A Redhead and I were discussing its presence there and in Nuit de Tubereuse the other day. Cumin to me adds an indefinable “oddness” to a perfume – might be bad, might be good. More bad than good tbh. Would have to retry before pronouncing where these two scents rate on your -ometer!

How about The Tom Ford Era Gucci Eau De Parfum….??? THAT has a very SEXUAL, SENSUAL Pronounced Cumin Note in it that i always found Intoxicatingly Attractive! I Love cooking with cumin as well (one of my FAVE Spices) it lends a Lustiness and Earthiness, Kinda Almost like really good Patchouli does to fragrances and food! I remember Alexander McQueen’s Eponymous Fragrance came out around the same time as Gucci Eau De Parfum and both were VERY Redolent of Cumin… McQueen’s more in a Carnal way, Gucci’s more in a Lusty way! So i would say Gucci Ranks about a 6 on the Cumin-O-Meter!

Not a perfume (I wish it were, actually) but I think Diptyque’s Thé candle needs to go on the list. “The” if the accent code doesn’t it work.

I seem to like scents that have cumin in them without being particularly sensitive to it. Just put on CdG2 and I can’t pick it up at all. Thinking about it, I’ve never picked out a cumin note on my own, so now I’m curious to sample the higher reaches of the cumin-o-meter to see what my nose knows.

Count me in as a cumin lover. Femme is a favorite, and I’ll wear it anytime, anywhere. I’ve never smelled the original, and was surprised to learn that the new one is the version fortified with cumin. At least one fragrance didn’t go all thin and wimpy on reformulation! I think the sweet peach and the smoky spice balance each other well. However, Tauer’s L’Air du Desert Marocain is too foody and un-perfume-like for me – I’ve described it as a “fire in the spice rack of a Middle Eastern restaurant”. I’d rank that one as #10 on the cumin-o-meter.

I tried it yesterday! (Jub.25) I loved it!
Your right, Femme is her cheaper sister. I don’t know but I only adore the vtg. Femme, which isn’t cumin at all, just glorious barnyard on me.
Still need to try Jub. next to Diorama, I’ll let you know when I do.

Hi Angela-I’m way late to the party but could not resist commenting on cumin!
I love it in Le Labo’s Rose 31, it lends a beautiful dusty dry note that I love. It wears like a 3/4 on the cumin scale on my skin.

In SL’s MKK-it’s bumpy at first but like a pair of nice biker boots, once they’re broken in, it all smooths out in the end-I’d give it a 6.

When I wear SL’s Fleur de Orange, it’s easily a 9 on the cumin scale, and on me, it wears more “truckstop in Georgia on a hot August day” it does NOT like my skin chemistry. Approx three hours in it starts behaving, but it’s a wait…..

Love the comment about Amouage! As I am on the fourth place with Amaranthine, I would like to test the next one, but I do not “smell” or rather look as stuff I cannot afford.
But Kingdom might be somtehing I could get a tester. Alexander BANGs out, well well…